Beyond External Finance - Can Cities Scale Their Own Revenues While Delivering Housing Solutions

Cities face rising pressure to deliver affordable housing options, serviced land and resilient infrastructure—yet municipal budgets are constrained and borrowing options limited. While the global conversation often focuses on “closing the gap” through external finance, many cities still under‑mobilize own‑source revenues (OSR), which consists of taxes and fees that a local government is authorized to collect (e.g., property taxes), providing a predictable and accountable foundation for investment in housing‑enabling infrastructure and services. In many low-income contexts, cities capture only a fraction of their OSR potential (often cited at 10–25%). Strengthening OSR is not only about raising revenue: it helps fund local public good provision that underpin housing outcomes such as serviced land and basic services, and strengthens fundamentals external financiers look for, including stable cash flows, credible planning and stronger accountability. The National Association of Municipalities of Cabo Verde (ANMCV), together with Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, e-Gov and the UN‑Habitat, are convening this networking event to move the OSR agenda beyond incremental fixes toward durable, system‑level gains that strengthen cities’ capacity to deliver the essentials of adequate housing at scale. The session will focus on how cities can move from small OSR tweaks to large-scale revenue gains through rapid diagnostics, novel technology, regulatory reform, land-value capture tools, and improved utilization of public assets. It will share OSR success stories and discuss their generalizability across low-income cities. Expected Outcomes: • Inform city-level decision-making on where OSR reforms typically deliver the largest, most durable gains. • Identify concrete administrative, regulatory and digital measures that improve transparency, compliance and collections. • Define how strengthened OSR fundamentals can support both housing-enabling investment and responsible leverage of external finance. Format: The session begins with ANMCV and a city case on OSR reforms. UN‑Habitat/LoGRI will present core diagnostics and sequencing, and the World Bank will cover OSR, creditworthiness, and access to finance. It will feature either an OSR challenge clinic, a case-analysis on scaling successful reforms, or an Oxford‑style debate on reform options for the housing crisis, followed by a brief synthesis and next steps.